Celebrating 7 Years of Cooperation!
July 2023 marks seven years since Hawaiʻi ʻUlu Cooperative began serving Hawaiʻi farmers and communities.
In seven years, we have grown our membership to over 150 farmers on Hawaiʻi Island, Maui, Oʻahu and Kauaʻi! In 2023 alone, we harvested over half a million pounds of local produce and had a record breaking ʻulu harvest season of 138,958 pounds aggregated. Our farmers steward 6,259 ʻulu trees and collectively manage 213 acres of breadfruit cultivated in agroforest and orchard settings.
Hawaiʻi ʻUlu Cooperative’s success over the past year and since its inception in 2016 is directly linked to the cooperative model and its ability to balance local community ownership and long-term benefits with building a viable business.
Over the next five years, we strive to continue developing an economically-successful, social enterprise that can give back to the farmers, the community, and the ‘āina, while strengthening Hawaiʻi’s food system.
July 2022 to June 2023 Highlights:
2022
July
Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Co-op celebrates its 6th Annual Member Meeting with 100 farmers, staff and guests at the Honalo facility in Kailua-Kona. Guest speaker Angelina McCoy shared about ‘ulu culture in Micronesia.
The Co-op is formally invited to join the Pacific Islands Farmers Organization Network (PIFON), becoming its first Hawai‘i member.
July
We also provided the Hawai‘i Food and Wine Festival with kalo for its Kalo Recipe Contest in partnership with Hawai‘i Executive Collaborative and Kamehameha Schools.
2022
2022
August
The ‘Ulu Co-op expand aggregation and processing operations to O‘ahu and Maui with crop drop-off locations for neighbor island member farmers.
September
The Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Co-op participated in the Hawai‘i Ag Conference, with talks on co-ops, value chain development and the Hawai‘i County BBB coalition.
First Kaua’i member joins the co-op, bringing geographic representation to four Hawaiian islands.
2022
2022
October
Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Co-op attended the Global Breadfruit Summit which took place at the Honolulu Convention Center.
The Co-op hosts ʻUlu Agroforestry Roundtable with key Hawai‘i agriculture stakeholders in Hilo to get feedback and insights on future ‘ulu agroforestry developments across the pae ʻāina.
November
The Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Co-op releases and co-authors Chef Sam Choy’s ‘Ulu Cookbook with Gaye Wong and Mutual Publishing Inc.
2022
2022
December
The Co-op reaches a milestone of aggregating and distributing over 1,000,000 pounds of Hawai‘i-grown staple crops from its member farmers.
January
Kirthi Hagalwadi, MPH student from San Jose State University, the co-op’s first public health intern; in partnership with nutritionist ambassador Cynthia Archibald and Hui Mālama Ola Nā ʻŌiwi we begin working on resources for Type 2 Diabetes.
The co-op completes its first Breadfruit Value Chain analysis.
2023
2023
February
The co-op goes to Tonga on a knowledge exchange mission with Nishi Trading, another member of PIFON.
March
Released our impact story video produced by Eleven17 and Kamehameha Schools.
The Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Co-op hires Aaron Braud as the new Alae Postharvest Facility Manager.
2023
2023
April
Partnered with the Nature Conservancy along with UH CTHAR and Propagate Ag to launch the AgroforestryUSA project.
May
The ‘Ulu Co-op distributes the last Hoʻopili ʻAi boxes of the school year to Hawai‘i keiki – bringing the total up to 3,544 lbs of Hawai‘i-grown staple crops served to 7,725 students.
The Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Co-op hires Roger Fawcett as the new Sales Manager based out of Honolulu, Hawai‘i.
2023
2023
June
Our Board of Directors approves the 150th co-op member; the final count at the end of FY23 is 151 farmers strong and growing!
The Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Co-op’s farmer members brought in a record breaking 138,839 pounds of ‘ulu in FY23 season.
June
Celebrated the one-year anniversary at O.K. Farms ‘Ulu Agroforestry project.
Participated in the Hawai‘i on the Hill event with the Chamber of Commerce Hawai‘i in Washington DC.
2023
